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List of publications on a keyword: «semiotics»

  • The Continuous tence forms of the English language in the cognitive-semiotic aspect

    Research Article
    Ethnic Culture Volume 6 No 4
    Authors:
    Elena E. Chikina, Elena D. Arabey
    Work direction:
    World languages and literature
    Abstract:
    The article offers a cognitive-semiotic analysis of English Continuous tense forms. The purpose of this study is to analyze the internal form of Continuous tenses which are considered as grammatical phraseological units. By describing the cognitive phraseosemantic modelling of ‘conceptual complexes’ through grammar means the authors endeavour to define and formulate basic cognitive-semiotic features of English Continuous tense forms. As a result it is concluded that the general cognitive model of the Continuous tenses actualises the discursive identity between the Actant-Subject and the Actant-predicate noun expressed by the gerund of the meaningful verb. This model expresses the semantics of a confined action developing in a limited spatio-temporal frame without a rigid attachment to the temporal markers of the beginning and end of the action. Different Continuous tenses show different positions of the observing subject in relation to the time of action, as well as modifications of the basic cognitive model of Continuous. For Present Continuous and Past Continuous, the specificity of their discourse syntagmatics is that the position of the observing subject differs. Future Continuous is characterised by a modified model of Actant-Subject and Actant- predicate noun identity, which develops an additional cognitive parameter. In this case the paradigmatic dependence of the predicate noun on the subject of an statement is observed. The paper also considers the cognitive model of the construction to be going to + infinitive as a special case of the cognitive model of Continuous.
    Keywords:
    English language, tense, semiotics, continuous tense, grammatical phraseological unit, internal form, cognitive-semiotic model
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  • Foreign language textbook as semiotic phenomenon

    Review Article
    Ethnic Culture Volume 5 No 4
    Authors:
    Elena E. Chikina, Valeria A. Averina
    Work direction:
    Ethno-Cultural Problems of Education
    Abstract:
    The aim of this paper is the semiotic analysis of a foreign language textbook as a semiotic phenomenon reflecting the cognitive attitudes of its authors and aimed at forming not only external but also deep layers of the learner's linguistic personality, responsible for motivation, intents and attitudes. The material to be analysed is a popular line of EFL textbooks “English file” by British authors Ch. Latham-Koenig and C. Oxenden. The scientific novelty of the work is that for the first time a foreign language textbook is considered not as an educational and methodological text, but as an alternative reality, a dynamic complex sign, similar to the discursive space of a fiction book. The study is conducted by applying the method of contextual analysis, the method of cognitive-pragmatic analysis, and the interpretive method to the polycoded texts of EF-textbooks. The authors conclude that the semiotic complex of EF-textbooks exhibits the characteristics of an educational novel of fiction, where the learner assumes the function of a fairy-tale hero, acting in the space of English-language cultural mythologems, reference-metric elements, topoi and narratives. As a result of active realisation of the happy end narrative, supported by the system of topoi and precedent names characteristic of the English-language conceptosphere, the textbook uses the suggestive potential of the so-called soft power to form changes at the motivational-pragmatic level of the linguistic personality.
    Keywords:
    semiotics, semiology, pedagogical discourse, foreign language textbook, cultural mythologemes, narrative, precedent phenomenon
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  • Visual Semiotics of Inequality in the Structure of an Architectural Text

    Research Article
    Ethnic Culture No 2 (3)
    Authors:
    Viktor V. Fedorov, Mikhail V. Fedorov, Dmitry A. Hanygin
    Work direction:
    Problems of Crosslinguistic and Intercultural Communication
    Abstract:
    The article is devoted to the consideration of the architectural environment as a form of materialization of social existence. It is noted that the architectural text of a large city contains special subject and spatial inclusions – loci of power. The article focuses on the relations of topological segregation – the disproportionate distribution of structural elements in the space of a populated place. This is a set of obstacles in choosing a place, and at the same time a condition for the formation of a social hierarchy of urban spaces. Methods. In the course of the work, the problem and thematic, structural and functional and comparative and historical methods to identify basic concepts of architectural spaces of power were applied. Results. It is shown that social inequality and topological segregation occur in the city in a “natural” way, since it embodies various facets of inequality inherent in society. The typology of constantly reproducible principles of organization of architectural objects and spaces of power such as monumentality, static character, conciseness, verticality, hierarchy, the presence of a central structure, tradition, consistency, syncretism is clarified. It is shown that the emerging signs of inequality, embodied in architectural and urban planning decisions, participate in the formation of the social structure, reproduce and transform its value and semantic content. The basic principles of the organization of architectural objects and spaces of power are considered. Models for implementing these principles in the process of creating new loci of power are proposed. It is concluded that the hypothesis put forward by the authors that loci of power are the spatial embodiment of complex mechanisms for maintaining the dynamic balance of the social system is confirmed by the results of research on the semiotics of inequality in the structure of the architectural text.
    Keywords:
    semiotics of architecture, locus of power, topological segregation, inequality
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